Under Armour's CEO is paid the salary of a Walmart worker — but he's found another way to get rich

(Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank.J. Meric/Getty Images) Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank earns a yearly salary of about $26,000, which is about as much as that of a Walmart store employee.

That may seem shockingly low for the chief executive of an $8 billion company, but Plank has found some other ways to get rich.

Specifically, Plank owns more than 15% of Under Armour's outstanding shares, which are valued at more than $1.3 billion, according to a company proxy released Thursday.

Additionally, businesses controlled by Plank are potentially benefitting from more than $73 million that Under Armour has paid to them in the last year.

The payments include $2.4 million to lease a jet and a $6,500-an-hour helicopter owned by one of Plank's businesses, according to the proxy.

Under Armour also paid $70.3 million to one of Plank's businesses last year for a piece of land it owned near the clothing brand's headquarters in Baltimore. Under Armour plans to use the land to expand its headquarters.

Under Armour says Plank didn't make money on this purchase, however.

"He actually sold the land to the company at a loss," a company representative told Business Insider. "Moreover, this purchase is going to enable the company to develop a headquarters campus that can support the company's long-term growth plans. The company followed a thorough process in reviewing and negotiating the transaction, using independent advisors, including Ernst & Young, with close oversight of the company's Audit Committee to ensure the transaction was fair to the company and free of any potential conflicts."

Under Armour also plans to use a hotel owned by Plank and his brother, Scott Plank, for business purposes, the company said in the filing. The hotel, in Baltimore, opened in March.

"We have negotiated corporate rate discounts for use of the hotel with the management company, consistent with rates otherwise available for comparable hotels in the area," the company said.

For all the other transactions involving Plank's businesses, Under Armour says it used an independent outside party to appraise the fair market value of the transaction. In other words, the company tried to make sure it wasn't paying more than it would otherwise to do business with Plank's businesses.

Under Armour's dealings with Plank's businesses come to light as the company's shares have gotten hammered. They've fallen 30% since the beginning of the year, after news that revenue growth contracted sharply in the most recent quarter after years of explosive gains.

The company's net revenue still rose about 12%, to $1.31 billion, in the fourth quarter, but that was its slowest sales growth in eight years. Analysts had expected revenue of $1.41 billion.